Vladimir Putin’s new BFF, North Korea dictator Kim Jong Un, is currently on the scene with the Russian president. That should present plenty of fodder, but at the moment, Putin also has other worries. Well, in addition to those pesky reports that he is obsessed with his secret cosmetology train and is building the ultimate bunker due to constant drone strikes on Moscow. Most recently, he seems awfully upset that Ukraine would dare to apply a counterdefense, which we will also discuss in a moment.
First, there’s news about Russian troops, who have long since been forced to use outdated ammo that can blow up in their faces and to plug their own bullet wounds with tampons brought from home. Business Insider is relaying word that a recent Russian pilot’s high-profile defection has led scores of Russian soldiers to pick up the phone and call “Ukraine’s surrender hotline”:
Andrii Yusov, of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, told Radio Svoboda that there has been a 70 percent daily uptick of calls to “I Want to Live”, a state-run project which allows Russian soldiers to arrange to give themselves up rather than fight in the war.
“There is considerable progress on the hotline of ‘I Want to Live’ and, separately, on other communication channels,” Ysuov said, according to a translation by the Ukrainian Pravda. “After the successful operation Synytsia with the Mi-8 and the pilot, the number of Russian army servicemen considering such a scenario has increased,” he added.
Business Insider also reveals that Russia did block the hotline’s website after 2,000 Russian soldiers established contact that way last fall. Yet the hotline is still running via Telegram and phone, so good luck with that one, Putin.
Speaking of the Russian president (whose mouthpieces are calling a 2024 election unnecessary in Russia because it’s “obvious” who will win), he finally started admitting in July that his army is performing abysmally in Ukraine. In recent days, however, he has declared that he does not intend upon ending his invasion of Ukraine. When quizzed further, Putin insisted that he certainly will not stop fighting while Ukraine is mounting a counteroffensive (the nerve!). Meanwhile, Ukraine declared that it won’t stop fighting until Russia gets the hell out. In other words, this will be a very long war, but not if every Russian soldier eventually ends up defecting.
(Via Business Insider & Reuters)